Coming Home
by guyw1tn0nam3
Summary: It was something she had to do alone, and it frightened her more than hanging for her life over the edge of a Fire Nation ship. Now walking down the hill towards her home, Toph could only imagine what punishments her parents had in store for her.


**A/N: **So after I finished a chapter for Tokka Week, and afterwards I had a sudden idea. Enjoy!

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><p><strong>Coming Home<strong>

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><p>"Are you sure you want to do this alone?" Sokka gripped her tightly. "Aang's right behind you, and if Katara wasn't so busy smooching him, she'd come too. Even Zuko wouldn't mind coming along. You know where I would rather be right now."<p>

"Thanks, Sokka," Toph smiled and placed her hand on Sokka's, slowly peeling away the fingers that stuck themselves on her shoulder. "But I can do this. I have to do this alone. I'll be back in thirty minutes or less. Hopefully."

She had made sure that Katara had dressed her appropriately for the occasion, with the same garments that would be fit for a young lady meeting her suitor while keeping the makeup light. Her white puff balls that hung around her ears had disappeared, and she wore an elaborate headdress over braided hair that was decorated with gold and flowers. White jade flowers were sprinkled over her light green silk dress and a colorful dark green sash held it all together.

There was more than just that. Around her neck was a necklace presented by the Earth King, the only one given to anyone in Team Avatar, a sign that she was the hero and representative of the Earth Kingdom in the final moments of the war. Wrapped around her waist was a belt that resembled that of previous Earth Rumble tournaments. This time, however, the belt had been given to her by remnants of the Dai Li who had sworn their loyalty to the Earth King, as a sign of their respect and mastery of Earthbending.

Documents were folded in her sweaty palms. They were papers stamped by the new secretariat of the Earth Kingdom, acknowledging the achievements that Toph Bei Fong had achieved and bestowing great honors upon the Bei Fong house. There were many more trinkets, some in her pocket, some that she had to leave behind with Appa.

The grass felt cold and tickled her feet as she walked the hill towards her estate. The sun was barely beginning to set, and the wind had died down after bothering Appa the entire day. The vibrations from her four friends slowly faded as she reached the gates to her home. Every other step she took was another sigh that she breathed in, a futile effort to try to calm down the beating in her heart, a loud thump heavier than even Sokka's loud footsteps.

At the front gate, she met a familiar presence, the footsteps of a guard that would never notice when she snuck out. He gazed at her now, and was taken aback by her beautiful and grown appearance. He immediately started for the door and opened his mouth to announce to everyone that Toph Bei Fong had returned home. Toph held up a hand to his mouth and shook her head.

"I don't want everyone in the living room when I face them," Toph whispered. "Thanks though, Shu. It's nice to see you again."

Speechless, the guard held open the door as she passed. Toph performed the same ritual as maids and servants turned their eyes in disbelief as the next head of the Bei Fong family strode past them, adorned in a beautiful silk dress made in the finest shops in Ba Sing Se. "Hello Ling. Good evening Bao. Nice to see you Xing Xing." She greeted each and every one of them. It was almost easy, these familiar people bowing and giving surprised smiles. It almost made her forget that the porch to the estate was drawing closer and closer to her.

When she had reached the cobblestone steps up to the front porch, Toph stopped. Behind her, a crowd of the Bei Fong's servants, guards, and maids gathered quietly as they watched the small girl they had taken care of a year ago standing a little taller in front of her home. They hid away in bushes, waiting for Toph to take the final steps up the porch and into her home.

But Toph wasn't ready. The nervousness in her heart escalated once again as she could feel the faint feel of footsteps running around the room. At this distance, she could not tell what was going on inside the home, and her booming heart wasn't helping her concentrate either.

She chuckled a little, shaking her head at how unconfident her parent's had made her become. Of all the people who had never accepted her talents, the last people she would have expected would have been the very people that brought her into the world. She held the paper firmly in her left and gripped the necklace tightly in her right and looked straight at the door in front of her.

"I have to do this," Toph whispered, reminding herself what she had told Sokka mere minutes ago. "I have to do this alone. I can do this."

She took a step onto the porch.

The front door burst open.

Toph looked up.

Poppy Bei Fong looked down.

Both of them froze.

It was her mother that broke the silence first.

"Don't. Even. Think. About. Running," Poppy Bei Fong's words came out as a desperate plea, as if she was already on the verge of tears. She disappeared into the house for a moment. Toph couldn't even think about running. She was already rooted into the ground by merely her mother's presence.

Moments later, Lao Bei Fong came to the front door.

"What is this all about," Lao said, his arm being forcefully dragged by Poppy Bei Fong. "Can't you see I'm very-"

Lao stared out the front door and paused, too shocked to speak. The servants of the Bei Fong household peered out from the bushes around the house, nervous at the tension building at the front porch of their home. Lao, who looked noticeably older than the year before, took one step out onto the porch, followed by Poppy, and Toph found herself forced into a full on confrontation with both her parents.

"I-," Toph started, not knowing where to start. She looked at her waist. She took off the belt. "Here. The Dai Li gave this to me. It's a sign of respect from them."

She pulled off the necklace. "The Earth King gave it to me. They say it's the only one that was bestowed to anyone in the last hundred years."

She held out the papers. "And this. It has the seal of the Earth King on there. It's a paper, honoring the Bei Fongs."

"I know I ran away from home," Toph's head was down. Even when blind, she felt uncomfortable gazing at her parents' faces. "And I know I must have really worried you guys. I'm…"

The words were hard to say, not because Toph didn't want to say them, but because she had never said these words in her life.

"Sorry. I'm really sorry," Toph forced herself to say. She could feel her two parents flinch. "I'm not here to ask you to forgive me, because I don't think I didn't anything wrong. No matter what you say, I'll still be the fighting and dirt loving daughter that you didn't want to see. I don't know what right I have to come back like this, and I don't know what to say about those two goons you sent after me. I don't even know how you felt when I wrote my letter to you. I just don't want to run away anymore."

"That's why," Toph looked up at her two parents and tried to put on a smile. "I'm home."

It wasn't much, but it was what she wanted to say. She held out her trinkets, an offering to her parents. Sokka had suggested that it might help her start up a conversation, and it turns out that he was right.

Poppy reacted first. She burst into tears, her cries ringing throughout the entire courtyard as she rushed into Toph's arms and stained her dress with her wet tears. Toph, eyes wide, dropped the items in her hands and quickly wrapped her arms tentatively around her mother's body and patted her slowly.

Lao came next. He moved slowly, as if the old age and stress from the past year had caught up with him. His eyes had never shrunk from the surprise that had hit him when he first saw Toph. He took a quick look at the belt, the necklace, and the papers, before pushing those aside with his foot. Before Toph could react to that, Lao dropped to his knees behind Poppy, and held out his hands and gripped them tightly over his daughter's cold fingers. He made no sound. There was no croaking in his throat, no sharp cry, and no shaking shoulders.

It wasn't until the first drop fell onto the floor that Toph realized that there were also tears streaming down Lao's smiling face.

"Don't…cry for me," Toph whispered, remembering what Katara had told her almost a year ago. "I'm a spoiled child, someone who hurts her parents, someone who didn't even realize that she had hurt them. I'm not a good daughter, and I never became who you wanted me to be."

Lao would only shake his head. Poppy continued to cry and wrapped her arms even more tightly around Toph.

"Don't…cry for me," Toph repeated.

It was only another moment before Toph gave in to her emotions. Her fingers gripped her father's, her head on her mother's shoulders.

The tears came, and the servants of the Bei Fong residents smiled.

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><p><strong>AN:** There are a lot of Toph fics that describe this reunion in a negative light, and there are a lot of Tokka fics that stop their stories before they even get to this reunion. Now that I think about it, a lot of the interpretations of this reunion are, in my opinion, flat out wrong, overblowing the restrictive nature Toph's parents had on her and underestimating the power that a parent can have for their child.

This is perhaps one of the most important scenes for Toph (though they never show it in the show), and it is a scene that brings her arc to a close. Toph's story isn't one that's necessarily fighting alongside the Avatar and going about all these new places. Her story is more of a lost child that runs away from home, experiences lots of fun things along the way, but soon realizes that there is a place that she always kept dear to her heart.


End file.
